The Directorate of Treasuries and Accounts at the New Capital Complex in Kohima. (Morung Photo for representational purpose only)
Moa Jamir
Dimapur | August 7
Seven Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) made fraudulent/excess drawal of Rs 45 lakh during 2015-16 and 2017-18 by submitting inadmissible or excess bills of Pay & Allowances of existing and ghost employees, the CAG has observed.
This is blatant violation of provisions under the Central Treasury Rules (CTR) which Nagaland State follows, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India observed in a ‘Compliance Audit’ of the Directorate of Treasuries & Accounts, Finance Department, Nagaland.
The CAG Report of the ‘General, Economic and Revenue Sectors’ for the year ended 31 March 2019 (Government of Nagaland, Report No. 2 of 2020)’ was tabled in the recent 8th Session of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly on August 5.
As per the CAG, the Rule 28 of CTR stated that “A government officer supplied with funds for expenditure shall also be responsible for seeing that payments are made to persons entitled to receive them.”
In addition, Rule 27 provides that if a “Treasury Officer receives intimation from the Accountant General that moneys have been incorrectly drawn and that a certain sum should be recovered from a drawing officer, he shall effect the recovery without delay and without regard to any correspondence undertaken or contemplated with reference to the retrenchment order; and the drawing officer shall without delay repay the sum in such manner as the Accountant General may direct.”
Test check of vouchers revealed that 7 DDOs violating the provisions made the excess drawal, the CAG said.
Things, however, gets ‘interesting’ after the anomalies were pointed out to the concerned DDOs. As per the CAG, the DDOs maintained the amount had been recovered and deposited into Government account through Treasury Challans.
Verification of the Treasury Challans submitted by the DDOs with the Monthly Cash Account (Form TR 36) of respective treasuries submitted to Principal Accountant General (A&E) Office, however, revealed that the amount stated to be deposited through Treasury Challans were not available in the appropriate Monthly Cash Account.
“Therefore, the amount stated to be recovered by the DDOs had not been actually deposited in the Treasury. Instead, the DDOs submitted fake treasury challans as deposits against misappropriated amounts to mislead audit in order to settle the audit observations,” the CAG observed.
The Directorate of Treasuries & Accounts accepted the fact of dubious challan details furnished by the DDOs (February 2020) and further informed that instead of Rs 45 lakh, as claimed by the DDOs, only Rs 15.06 lakh was deposited, but with different challan numbers and dates and Rs 29.94 lakh still remains to be recovered.
The 7 DDOs were Water Conservation Officer, Tuensang; District Employment Officer, Tuensang; Station Superintendent (SS), Nagaland State Transport, Zunheboto; Assistant Labour Commissioner, Tuensang; Chief Veterinary Officer, Tuensang; Block Development Officer, Wozhuro, Wokha and Block Development Officer, Ghathashi, Zunheboto.
In its recommendations, the CAG stated that matter merits further vigilance and departmental action on the responsible officers for misappropriation and submission of fake challan details to audit, besides recovering the balance amount.
It also called for detailed investigation by the concerned departments to unearth “similar cases of misappropriation along with strengthening of controls and internal audit to obviate recurrence of such misappropriation.”
The Government must also ensure computerisation of pay/ allowances bills at the DDO and Treasury level, including preparation of online pay bills and linking it with Aadhaar of the employees and Treasury MIS for effective control, it added.
Recurring (mal) practices
The complete report of the concerned department also highlighted that the case of 7 DDOs is not an aberration, but a regular (mal) practice.
Failure of the Drawing and Disbursing Officers and Treasury Officers to exercise prescribed checks resulted in fraudulent/double/excess drawal of Rs 5.16 crore, out of which Rs 4.94 crore was yet to be deposited, the CAG commented in its overall assessment.
In another instance, the CAG observed that 3 Department DDOs fraudulently drew funds of Rs 41.23 lakh on six bills as pay and allowances against 70 bogus employees while 2 Departments DDOs fraudulently drew Rs 23.46 lakh in 24 bills as HRA & pay arrears against 44 bogus employees and 9 non-entitled employees.
The DDOs were General Manager, District Industries, Centre, Zunheboto; Principal, Women Industrial Training Institute, Dimapur; Executive Engineer, Water Resources Department, Mokokchung; Superintendent of Excise & Prohibition, Mon and Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, Pughoboto.
On this being pointed out, two DDOs - EE Water Resources Department, Mokokchung and GM District Industries Centre, Zunheboto - partially recovered Rs 4.68 lakh and deposited into Government account, the CAG said.
In case of the former, the Government replied that the then EE drew Rs 23.81 lakh to “meet the expenditure incurred during emergency electrification in the E.E’s Office building due to short circuit, TA/Travelling expenditure for monitoring of project site and salvaging the damaged minor irrigation projects during monsoon season.” The DDO had recovered Rs 3.00 lakh and requested permission to recover remaining on installment basis. The reply seeks to legitimise an illegal and fraudulent act, which is unacceptable, the CAG stated.
The latter submitted a Treasury Challan of Rs 7.74 lakh in support of depositing the amount into the Government account. However, on verification, it was observed that the challan was not accounted for in the monthly accounts of the treasury.
“Hence, the authenticity of the challan could not be vouchsafed.”
No replies were received (July 2020) from the remaining 3 DDOs, the CAG said.
“The blatant and widespread failure of the DDOs and Treasury Officers in complying with the provisions under Central Treasury Rules and Receipt and Payment Rules indicates possible collusion for fraudulent drawals,” the CAG observed.
